After searching the Internet here are the five ways that I found to be more creative.

Drink to much coffee.

Surround yourself with creative people.

Write down a list of ideas.

Practice the Golden Rule of Creativity.

Walk away and do something else if you are not on a tight deadline

I do not think that drinking to much coffee is way to be more creative. I am a coffee drinker and it has never helped me be creative. If I drink too much of it I either have a headache or I am full of energy for a few hours and then it goes down hill from there.

Surrounding yourself with creative people can inspire you to be like them and be more creative. A creative environment can affect the way you think, act, and refresh you with new ideas. Don’t isolate yourself. I can see where this would be very helpful in being creative.

It always helps me to write down a list when I am trying to come up with creative ways to fix something or improve it. I am able to see it on paper and visualize it better. You can also make charts by putting the problems on one side and the ideas to fix it on the other side and then connect everything together.

Practice the Golden Rule of Creativity is something that I was not familiar with. This rule is based on teams that help each other and share their ideas. When you find and article or have an idea that may help the person out that is on your team you will share the information. The more information that is shared the more ideas that will be generated and the team can come up with creative idea.

Sometimes walking away and doing something different can help be creative. If you are constantly working on the same thing day in and day out it can become boring and frustrating at time. I often use this advice when I am writing long papers. I will start writing the paper and then when I get to the point that I can’t think anymore I quit and come back later.

I think the ideas in the chapter are all very good. Paying attention to change is the one idea that I agree with the most. If you are not watching what is changing then you won’t know why it failed. Not listening to the naysayers is borderline for me because sometimes you have to listen but that doesn’t mean that you completely believe them or disregard them. If you never listen you may do a lot of work that doesn’t need to be done but on the other hand if you do listen you may not really know the result unless you try it yourself.

Here is a letter I found on the internet that is ineffective and unprofessional.

To: Jane Doe

Date:

We have finally reviewed your application for graduate study at Colorado State University. Due to the large number of applicants this year, competition was very tough, but luckily, we have recommended you for acceptance.

Also, to keep our students happy, we were fortunate enough to be able to offer a teaching assistantship, whereby you would work 20 hours a week. This assistantship also comes with a non-resident tuition waiver for the first year. If you don’t do well, though, we cannot give you another assistantship.

It occurred to us that you probably don’t have enough information to make a sound decision. The enclosed flyer provides a detailed description of our Cognitive Psychology Program, including the program of study, degree requirements, mentor ship program, faculty research interests, and laboratory facilities.

Since other qualified students are on a waiting list for admissions, please notify me in writing of your decision to accept or reject admission as soon as possible.

When I first started reading this letter the wording in it made it sound like she was not going to be accepted. The statement “luckily we have recommended you for acceptance” sounds like she just barely got accepted and should be grateful to be accepted.

On the second paragraph they tell her that they are fortunate enough to be able to offer her a teaching assistantship for 20 hours a week. They also tell her that they will not be able to give her another assistantship if she does not do well. They leave out the detail as to what she will be paid for the assistanship.

They also tell her that they realize they did not give her enough information to make a sound decision so they will enclose a flyer so she can see what it is about. They ask her to notify them in writing of her decision on accepting or rejecting the admission as soon as possible.

They should have started the letter off by telling her congratulations on getting accepted and that they could not wait until she joined the University. Then they should have offered her the assistantship with all the details she needed to make a good decision which includes the amount of money she would be making. They did not need to tell her that she had to do a good job or they would not consider her for the next year. Instead they should have waited for her decision on if she wanted to do it or not and then tell her that she had the option of doing it next year if she did well this year.

I am not sure why they would ask her to make a decision when they know that she doesn’t have all the information that she needs. They should have said please contact us for any other information and then give her a date on when they need an answer so that way other students are not waiting to see if they get it or not.